Hamilton’s winner evens series at 1-1

All tied up.

After falling to the Bruins in double overtime of game one, the Carolina Hurricanes battled back in game two to even the series at 1-1 with a 3-2 win over Boston in Toronto, courtesy of a game winner from former Bruins defenseman Dougie Hamilton.

Hamilton’s game-winning goal came on a perfect snipe from the top of the circle just under midway through the final period, as he gave the Canes new life in the series after a truly wild game. Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for Carolina, while Martin Necas delivered two beautiful assists.

For Boston, David Krejci opened the scoring on a power play in the first period, while Brad Marchand added a power-play goal with just five seconds remaining in the second frame. Tuukka Rask took the loss in net, stopping 23 of 26 shots faced, while James Reimer got the 31-save win for the Hurricanes.

Both teams came into the game missing some pieces, as Boston’s leading scorer, David Pastrnak, was ruled out leading up to the game after an apparent injury in the Bruins’ celebration after Bergeron’s double-overtime winner Wednesday.

For the Canes, Joel Edmundson, who scored in game one, and Nino Niederreiter were listed as unfit to play, though Carolina did get back Justin Williams and Sami Vatanen, who both missed game one.

Canes defenseman Haydn Fleury, who had the game-tying goal in the third period of game one, delivered a crushing, clean hit on Karson Kuhlman that the Bruins took exception to. Jeremy Lauzon was given an unsportsmanlike conduct in the aftermath of Fleury’s hit, giving the Canes the first power play of the game.

Carolina’s power play looked as good as it has all series with the early man advantage, but it wasn’t enough to break through against a Boston penalty kill that blocked shot after shot before it could even reach Rask in net. The Canes’ second unit, quarterbacked by Vatanen, looked particularly crisp, but couldn’t get anything through.

Shortly after the Hurricanes’ empty power play, Brady Skjei got whistled for hooking to give Boston a man advantage. Krejci made Skjei pay for the mistake, blasting a shot from the point past a stickless Jordan Staal that found the back of the net. Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk provided some traffic in front of Reimer to help Krejci give Boston its first power-play goal in its fifth opportunity of the series.

After changing up the lines before the game, Rod Brind’Amour shook things up with the lines even more during the first intermission, bringing Jordan Martinook up to Aho and Teravainen’s line. He continued to tinker with things moving forward.

There was some chippiness between Svechnikov, Charlie McAvoy and Zdeno Chara a few minutes into the second period, as McAvoy delivered a high hit to Svechnikov before the Canes’ young forward answered back with a hit from behind. Chara took exception to Svechnikov’s hit, and he and Svechnikov took roughing penalties.

That moment of physicality from Svechnikov seemed to open things up for the Canes, as Carolina looked to start playing its brand of hockey with some really good shifts starting midway through the game. Reimer also made a few big saves in the back half of the second period.

Boston’s Chris Wagner was called for elbowing with five minutes to play, and the Hurricanes tied the game up 1-1 on a wonderful snipe by Teravainen. Svechnikov delivered a beautiful cross-ice pass to Teravainen after a battle in the corner, and Teravainen finished with a stunning shot past Rask.

Svechnikov got one of his own a minute and a half after the Teravainen snipe, giving the Canes a 2-1 lead. Trevor van Riemsdyk made a strong pass to Necas near the boards, and Necas threaded an absolutely perfect pass across to Svechnikov for the strong finish and go-ahead goal.

It was the Canes’ turn to go to the box late in the second period, as Teravainen got whistled for a somewhat questionable penalty. Teravainen got called for interference after making some contact with Torey Krug, though it appeared Teravainen didn’t have much to do with the initiating of the contact.

Boston took full advantage of the Teravainen penalty, as Marchand netted his first goal of the postseason with just five seconds to play in the second period. Marchand got the rebound off of a Bergeron shot, and he put it into the open net.

Carolina thought it had regained the lead just a few minutes into the third period, but it was immediately waved off for goaltender interference on Teravainen. For the second time in two games this series Brind’Amour challenged a goal call, and for the second time the challenge failed as the call on the ice was upheld. The Canes did kill off the minor penalty for the missed challenge.

It didn’t take too long for the Canes to get that go-ahead goal though, as Hamilton, the former Bruin, tallied his first goal since his return from a lengthy injury. Another great setup pass from Necas made things possible, as Hamilton unloaded on the puck and rocketed an unsaveable shot past Rask.

Boston got plenty of good looks in the final 11 minutes following Hamilton’s goal, but Reimer stayed strong in net as Boston couldn’t find a tying goal. After a somewhat rough start to the evening for the Canes, Carolina really settled in midway through the game and closed things out well to even up the series.

Following an unusual back-to-back to open up this first-round series, the Hurricanes and Bruins will get a day off Friday before returning to the ice in Scotiabank Arena at noon Saturday.